I Saw a Deer
by lifeon
Summary: Chell is finally free,but hold on,hows she going to survive? She encounters a surprising group of friends that help her in more ways than she could have thought possible,and everything seems to be going great until something very unexpected happens and she finds herself face to face with someone she never thought she would see again,especial not like this! First story/no pairings.
1. Chapter 1

[Author's note- This is my first attempt at a story, it will most likely be a one-shot as of now, and I will add more chapters when I get to it if I get to it. I won't have any pairings either, so if your looking for some this isn't the story for you.]

* * *

Chell collapsed to the ground slowly, the realization of her new freedom hitting her just moments after the companion cube shot from the shack. The sun felt so warm on her skin, and the wind was breath taking, literally; in the depths of Aperture it was always so still that she was finding it slightly uncomfortable to breath. Or was that the wind? She thought a moment, it was possibly the wheat pollen in the air , too, after all it was all she could see for miles.

Scooting back a few feet from where she was on the ground she leaned against the shed watching the clouds and blue sky… Her mind wandered and she found herself thinking of Wheatly, currently floating in space damaged from their battle no doubt. Chell tried to fight off a sharp wave of pain at the thought of his mangled plating and cracked optic, she had hurt him more than she realized when in the final fight with him. The few seconds she got to look at him before he was pulled from her and sucked into the void of space was all she needed to see his injuries. Shaking her head she tried to think of something else, but what else was there to think of? Aperture was all Chell had ever know, holding no memory of the time before the testing started. Was she really going to make it out here? In a world she had never been in without anything to go off of?

A slight frown set on her face, then she did what she considered the most logical coarse of action; think of all the variables and work out a solution. She had survived testing, she had escaped and killed GLaDOS _twice_, she had managed to over throw Wheatly and survived his various death traps, she even shot a portal to the moon! The surface looks so calm and tranquil, no turrets or toxic pools or neurotoxin or mash spike plates of anything of the kind. Chell felt safe here. Nothing could hurt her. 'So surviving would be easier…_right_?'

Images of different animals danced around her head, she had never seen a single one of them before, but she some how knew them. Birds she recognized, that was for sure, but other things walking on 4 legs with stream lined shapes, long and short tails, claws and fangs, long and short fur, even scaly things with no legs at all started to concern her. The more she thought about it the more creatures came to mind, some of which looked perfectly equipped for killing her, scratch that, _most_ of them looked like they could kill her. She snorted, 'great, half these things should have just had a turret strapped to their faces because they where just as deadly only looked far more mobile'. Chell thought of something else, food. She would definitely needed food, but all she could see was wheat. 'I could eat some of those animals, they counted as meat.'

Raising to her feet with a small grin, Chell shook out her legs quickly, her gaze holding stone cold determination, and walked to her companion cube which patiently waited for her in front of the door of the shack. Hoisting it onto her back and adjusting her jumpsuit to help her hold it, Chell couldn't help stealing a glance at the security camera that sat on the rusting tin roof's corner. It was trained on her face, the lens focused on her figure before it. Chell's grin widened and she stepped forward, the camera following her silently. Leaning towards it she let out a rough whisper, the first words she had spoken since, she couldn't remember when, after having held her tough and forcing herself to be mute within the walls of the facility.

"..Good-bye.. Aperture…" That was all she said, backing swiftly away from the camera, her grin still growing wider, she turned on her heel and darted forward into the shoulder high wheat. The springs on her long-fall boots provided extra speed to her pace and kept her moving in a steady rhythm, it was still a little disorienting at first because she had not accounted for the springs digging into the soft soil, as opposed to rebounding strait off the solid panels, light bridges and catwalks of the facility.

* * *

The sun finally sank below the horizon, its last rays of light catching the swaying wheat and giving it a bright highlight of gold in the shadowy darkness of ending dusk. Chell walked through the wheat, not bothered by the tickle of wheat stalks on her skin, she had been walking for miles and gotten very used to it. The chill of night made her shiver and if it hadn't been for Apertures perpetual cold she might have been collapsed on the ground curled in a ball against the biting wind, but that too she was used to by now. The weighted companion cube on her back was living true to it's name, she could now feel just how _weighted_ it was.

She gave the area a slow scan, still nothing within sight, the shack had even disappeared from view by now. Sighing Chell took her companion cube off her back and placed it on the ground gently, then sat down next to it and leaned on it. Stars began to dot the night sky, no clouds disrupting their dazzling display, Chell had never seen stars like this before. She frowned as she remembered the first time she had seen them, at that time they where much larger to her and looked very scary, considering she could have been floating up there with them if GLaDOS hadn't caught her. Once more her thoughts wandered to the core stuck in the sky.

'No, why do I care about him? He tried to kill me, why should I show any pity for him?' She thought to herself.

_'Because you know it wasn't his fault the chassis corrupted him.' _Replied a clam level toned voice from beside her. Chell jumped with a small soundless yelp and whirled around to face the direction the voice came from, but there was nothing there except for her companion cube... Realization hit her, the cube had talked, the _cube_ had _talked!_ GLaDOS had said that they where in fact sentient, but she said they could not speak, but this was GLaDOS we where talking about, she lied quit a bit.

'Did you talk to me? Can you really talk?' she asked it inside her head, it had responded to her thoughts the first time so why not now? There was a silence then came a response in the same emotionless tone.

_'Yes, but this can only be heard by you, it is in fact all in your head.'_ Chell was surprised again by hearing anything from the cube but her face lit up none the less. So that's why GlaDOS had given it to her! It could talk and she knew it all along! But why in the world would a homicidal AI care about her social interactions on the surface? Had she known something Chell had not when she was let go? Thinking a bit Chell remembered that she had been in cyro sleep for a very long time, to her knowledge there where no humans left in the facility and all she could find on the surface was wheat, she hadn't even seen animals yet. This hadn't phased her until now. 'Is it possible that I'm the only thing out here?...' her thought trailed off.

_'Your not alone.' _Came an almost in-audible response. Chell looked down at the cube, and smiled softly, placing a hand on one of its hearts.

'No, I have yo-'

_'Not me.'_ The cube cut her off before she could even finish, she froze and looked at it in shock.

'What..what do you mean?..' Chell trailed off again, a shiver ran down her spin, and she had a strong urge to look around. It was almost too dark to see anything now, just the stars lite the sky, their cold light glaring down at her. But nothing was near her, it was just her and the cube, so what was it talking about?

There was only silence from the cube, and Chell calmed down enough to lean against it again. Pulling her jump suit back over her shoulders she curled up against the side of the cube and let sleep find her. 'What could cube have been talking about? And what would tomorrow bring? Will I find anything other than wheat out here?' was the last few things she thought before her eyes slide closed into a peaceful sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

[Author's note- I am sorry this took so long, like I said idk if I was going to continue this, but once more I felt the need to write something and I made a sort chapter of this. I want to warn you know, this will be a fast paced story, as much as I try to lengthen writing I end up making pointless parts to waste time so to speak, so yes it will cover a lot in some instances in a short time. Again, sorry, and a warning to followers that updates will be slow and random :/ ]

A week had past since Chell left Aperture. In that small stretch of time she had ventured through the wheat field looking for any signs of civilization. At first she had been faced with the serious problem of having no food, the testing tracks would give her nutritional substitutes that would keep her going for days at a time, but it was an almost liquid grey substance that tasted foul. Thankfully, similarly to her memories of animals she had a foggy idea of what was and wasn't food. Meat was a no-go, she had not encountered a single animal yet, but she did find some small red things on low to the ground bushes around rain puddles among the wheat.

They where tiny and plump, when you squished them a sticky juice came out and they tasted very good. Her memories provided her with the name of 'berries' but she wasn't sure if that was right at all, the name fit though so she went with it. By eating a lot of them they satisfied her hunger enough to explore most of the day before eating more later, she had even remembered where to find most of the patches in the few days she learned of them. With food covered she had another problem; shelter.

Though Chell had not yet had an issue with rain, she did feel uncomfortable sleeping in the open. Again this had something to do with Aperture and it really did upset her that so much of her life was plagued by the science facility. She only ever slept on the testing tracks if she found a broken panel to hide behind or a corner the cameras couldn't see, she felt insecure otherwise. Their was a constant fear that whatever AI was running the place would try to kill her while she slept, Chell certainly wouldn't put it past GlaDOS, and Wheatly didn't even have the decency to be discrete about his attempts. This fear became known when she took a nap in an open sunny spot one day and was woken up right away by nightmares where she whiteness her own death on the testing tracks, worst part was, it felt like she was the one controlling the test, watching from above and never averting her vision. It made her sick to think about.

Apparently if she slept in the open these nightmares would return, but she had no problems sleeping if she made a little wheat-cave-thing by arching the stalks over herself. But because this didn't stop any possible whether she was set on finding new shelter.

Today was windy, the clouds moved fast and the golden stalks of wheat swayed from side to side, yet the sun still kept the tempter extremely hot. Chell walked among them, her path was visible in the field because she had taken it a few times already in her short time of freedom, it headed for the only running water she had encountered so far. Just a small stream, but it was the freshest water to drink so she visited it often. Her black hair was down and being stirred by the wind. Her hair was dry and stiff from lack of attention and cleaning, but she didn't mind at all, the shoulder high grass around her was much harder and constantly brushed against her, leaving light scratches and lashes on her skin. Currently the Companion Cube rested against her back held by a makeshift sling that was the top of her jumpsuit. With every step the former test subject was carried about 3 feet forward thanks to the spring in her long fall boots. Water came within ear shot and she slowed down a bit. Upon reaching the bank Chell took her Companion Cube off her back and placed it next to her feet, briefly rubbing her soar shoulder blades.

Chell had to admit the Cube was starting to concern her. It was heavy for one and hard to carry. Two it had not spoken to her since it warned her she wasn't alone. Three no matter how many times she tried she never managed to get the black burn marks off of it. Chell sighed and squatted down then drank some water. When she had drank enough she sat back and looked at the Cube drowsily. After a few seconds of staring she huffed and flopped onto her back frustrated.

Was this it? Was this what she had fought for? Almost died multiple times for even? A life with no point except wandering, eating and sleeping? Hell she was even starting to miss the testing tracks, rouge AIs and constant threat of death, old habits die hard and at least that gave her some purpose, but this was so frustrating for her to deal with. She was told she had brain damage, but now that she wasn't being constantly faced with mind games and puzzles it made her realize just how sharp her mind must be, she felt plain stupid for having trouble doing things out here on the surface when she would normally figure things out like they where nothing.

She laid there for a long time and decided to take a nap. Flicking some hair from her face Chell bent a clump of wheat to make a temporary shelter to sleep under just a few feet up the bank and curled up under it. Regret. Regret for leaving, for not just staying and living in the facility, even if she had to test, she still regretted leaving. Regret was the only thing she could think of as she fell into a restless sleep.

-GLaDOS's POV-

The lights in the facility slowly started to come back on one by one, some popping from the sudden heat, others slowly gaining brightness. She could sense them again. Panels adjusted themselves, having been slightly slumped against one another, lifting back into place, joints protesting from age as usual. She could feel them again. The testing track assembly line, ventilation system, coolant system, tube system and turret manufacturing assembly line revved to life. She could hear them again. The cameras began to blink on throughout the facility. She could see through them again. Finally her own optic came back online, glowing from black to a bright yellow in seconds. GLaDOS did not stir, hanging limply from the ceiling of her chamber, suddenly her whole chassis reared up and she let out a heavily computerized yell of anger as the pistons on her side wined.

Swinging her head back down she held herself low to the ground, swaying in place with annoyance.

"Why! I don't understand! What could possibly cause this?!" She growled again and returned to a limp state. For the last week the power in the facility had been going completely out for hours at a time, she was even being shut down by it and the only backup power that was used went to the core reactor so it wouldn't have a meltdown. It was sporadic, and she could find no cause for it no matter how much she looked. Any and all testing with the cooperative testing initiative had to be halted because science certainly couldn't be done when the place was having power outages constantly during tests. Right now she reaallllyyy wanted to see life's manager.

She kept thinking, deep in thought on how to solve this problem logically, but the only solution she came up with was..was..well..she wasn't willing to do it. The minutes ticked by, and for her that was an unacceptably long time, considering she processed hundreds of thoughts in mere seconds usually, but that's how bad the situation was. Even she, GLaDOS, the worlds largest collection of knowledge couldn't come up with any solutions she was willing to try and solve this problem with.

Through that one idea kept creeping back into her mind, and she decided at last to consider it as a possibility. If she created an independent body for herself, one with freedom of motion like the coop bots, she could stay running while the power was out in the facility and figure out what was going on. But something inside her, a fear, kept her from accepting this plan, the only time she had left he body was when the moron put her in the potato, and even through she tried convinced herself that this time would be nothing like that time it failed. Emotions made her weak.

A few more minutes passed and she came to a conclusion. Throwing caution at the wind and burying any and all emotions she had the AI decided to make an android for herself.

_BEEEEP_. "CAROLINE DELETED. NEW PROJECT STARTED UNDER FILE NAME: ALL PURPOSE CENTRAL CORE REPAIR ANDROID. REASEMBLY MACHINE ONLINE. ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME OF PROJECT ' ALL PURPOSE CENTRAL CORE REPAIR ANDROID': 3 HOURS. CORE TRANSFER RECEPTICAL BEING ALTERED FOR PROJECT, PLEASE DO NOT APPROUCH OR ATTEMPT TO OPERATE CORE TRANSFER RECEPTICAL." the announcer reported in a cheery voice. Happy something was finally being done about the problem she went into stand by mode to run through the facility functions and check for any damage caused by or causing the power outages.


End file.
